This Land, Your Land

Saturday, September 26, is the 16th annual National Public Lands Day, "the nation’s largest hands-on volunteer effort to improve and enhance the public lands Americans enjoy." In 2008, 120,000 volunteers built trails and bridges, removed trash and invasive plants, and planted over 1.6 million trees, the National Public Lands Day Web site says.

The site's state-by-state event search engine shows 11 events in North Carolina, from picking up roadside litter at Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge to mulching the trails at Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve in Cary, to family events from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Wilson Lake in Nash County sponsored by Imagination Station.